


validation

by perhapssoon



Category: Splatoon
Genre: Fluff, Gen, They need more love, aviator is blind hc, glasses-es gang, just some inklings chatting, this is the closest to fluff you'll ever get from me, weird filler oneshot that has no plot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-02
Updated: 2019-06-02
Packaged: 2020-04-06 20:15:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19069873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perhapssoon/pseuds/perhapssoon
Summary: The Glasses-es Gang finds out Aviator's secret, validating Glasses along the way.





	validation

**Author's Note:**

> guys i love them too much to angst them to death ok

“So..”  Glasses looks up, startled, to see Full Moon leaning across the table to Aviator, eyes wide behind her frames. “Are you going to tell us why you have never taken off your shades before?”

Aviator stares at her, eyebrows climbing past the rim of his glasses. “Sorry?”

“You’ve never taken off your shades before,” Half-Rim says without looking up from his phone. “Not even inside. I imagine it must get painfully annoying to not be able to see properly while turfing. Not to mention that your weapon… is not the best for blindly shooting at everything.”

Aviator, for some reason, flinches slightly at the green Inkling’s words, though his usual grin stays on his face. “Uh I guess not. I don’t have a problem with it though.” He scoots away from Full Moon, who is practically stretched across the whole table. “Anyway, how did this even come up?”

“Fufufu~~” Full Moon chuckles and moves backwards into her seat. “Oh, it’s just a thought. In this SquidTube video, a charger was complaining about how her sunglasses always kept her from playing properly because she could never see in dim lighting. You do take your shades off during Splatfests, right?”

“No?” Aviator frowns then; it’s a completely different change from his usual expression and Glasses notices how… serious he looks. “Why would I?”  
“How in Inkopolis do you even see?” Glasses bursts out. Sure, he can imagine the sunglasses being a pain, especially at night, and with a tinted shade covering the purple Inkling’s eyes, it makes it harder to distinguish ink color, and see farther away because everything is darker. “I mean, sure, fashion and whatever. But how do you manage to wear shades and somehow able to turf without messing up every five seconds?”

He recalls the time when he tried on something similar to Aviator’s shades once. He had to put it over his own glasses because he couldn’t see without them, but with the shades on, it was like everything was ten times darker. He ended up tripping over his own feet while trying to walk in a straight line and gave up after about a minute.

Aviator shrugs. The smile is back again but Glasses can see the bead of sweat sliding down the side of his face. “It just works out, y’know? Guess I’m too good to be deterred by shades.”

Something doesn’t click with that since Glasses can see that Aviator isn’t really comfortable talking about this for whatever reason, so he backs off.

Full Moon and Half-Rim, however, don’t really seem to know how to read social cues.

“There has to be a reason why he never takes them off,” Half-Rim says to the cyan Inkling as if Aviator isn’t sitting right in front of him.

Full Moon nods, pretending to be lost in thought. “I always imagined he was like that character from the game Mask always likes to play. His name was… actually I don’t remember but the game was something like--” That part is a lie. Glasses can tell she knows exactly what that character was called.

“Rollertale?” Half-Rim asks. “Gloves plays that game too.”

“Okay, what does Rollertale have to do with anything?” Aviator asks, folding his arms. “My eyes don’t start glowing or anything, you do know that, right?”

“No, because you never take your glasses off,” Full Moon says slyly and Aviator groans.

“You’re not gonna ever let up on this, are you?”

“Well, I would try to take them off for you but Skull just appears out of nowhere. He acts like your mom sometimes.”

“That’s Skull for you, but why are you even so interested in my shades?” Aviator crumples up his shwaffle wrapper and tosses it over Glasses’ head and into the trashcan. “Can’t you just let me be fashionable in peace?”

“What’s the harm in telling us?” Half-Rim asks then, and Aviator tilts his head towards the green Inkling, mouth forming a thin line. “Do you have an eye disease perhaps? Concussion?”

“No, I’m--” Aviator breaks off and he glances around as if to make sure no one is watching before leaning forward slightly. “It’s not that.”

“Then what is it?” Glasses prods. If he has to be honest, he’s a bit curious too. Both Full Moon and Half-Rim are watching the purple Inkling intently as Aviator sighs.

“Promise not to tell anyone?”

They hesitate, before Glasses nods once. “Yeah. We promise.”

Aviator swallows hard before he lifts his sunglasses upwards, revealing his eyes. The first thing that Glasses notices is that the iris, usually a vibrant color on other Inklings, is a misty white. The second thing he notices is that they’re staring straight ahead, as if they don’t see anything. The eyes don’t match the expression Aviator is wearing though, because the purple Inkling looks upset and worried now, mouth turned downwards and eyebrows knitted together. He drops the glasses back onto his face quickly and shoves his hands into his pockets. “There. You happy?”

“You’re--”

“Blind. Yeah. I know, thanks.” Aviator doesn’t look happy right now, and Glasses feels a twinge of regret for asking him to reveal that.

“So how do you see during matches? Do you just sense where everyone is at all times? And how do you even know who’s talking to you?” The questions come from Full Moon like a torrent of words.

“Ink is loud,” is all Aviator says. “So I can hear you coming. And for voices… I guess my ears are fine-tuned to everyone. Look, I don’t like talking about it, okay? It’s already hard enough trying to hide it from everyone here so they don’t ask as many questions as you three.”

Silence falls over the table before Full Moon finally says, “Sorry,” for once not sounding like she’s about to laugh.

“I’m sorry too,” Half-Rim says and Glasses hastily mutters an apology too. “We should not have pried.”

Aviator just shrugs, but he looks away. "It's fine. I mean, it's hard hiding it anyway."

"Does anyone else know?" Half-Rim asks.

"Skull. My team. That's it." Aviator frowns. "So I guess it's kinda a 'consider yourself lucky' that you know."

Silence falls for a moment before Glasses has a wave of courage to speak up. "There's nothing wrong with being blind."

"I'm aware, thanks." The edge in the purple Inkling's voice is apparent and Glasses would shrink away usually if it weren't for the empathy for the other.

He's gotten his fair share of unwanted attention because even though Goggles is kindhearted and all, everyone now knows them as the Idiot Team, which grates a lot on his self consciousness.

It doesn't help that everything, including these three, thinks he's the second-in-command either.

"No, I'm serious," Glasses says. "Now that's another thing we all have in common."

Aviator glances over at him, eyebrows raising. "Really? What is that?"

"We all have terrible eyesight."

Aviator snorts, and while it's not a complete genuine laugh, Glasses will take that as a good sign.

"Fufufu~~ I'm sure mine is infinitely worse than all of yours, but that's just my honest opinion," Full Moon says, and Aviator actually laughs at that.

"You're kidding."

"Try me."

"So that makes three things in common," Glasses says, and his companions look over at him.

"Two," Aviator corrects him and Glasses tilts his head, confused.

"What's the two?"

"Bad eyesight and glasses, man. What even was the third one? Aren't you leader of your team?"  
He remembers.  _He remembers_. Glasses feels a wave of gratitude wash through him at the thought of it. He assumed everyone thought Goggles was the leader of Blue Team, and when he first talked to these three, they completely dismissed his true status.

"Yeah, I'm sure you're the leader, fufufu~~" Full Moon says, and Half-Rim nods in agreement.

"Unless you switched places with someone--"

"No, I'm the leader," Glasses says quickly. "Thanks for remembering."

The understanding in their eyes is almost too much to bear. 

Then Full Moon asks another question and they delve into conversation again, anything related to secrets and status forgotten. Glasses just sits there in a partial daze, hearts feeling like they are going to burst.

_They remember._ And it doesn't matter how many people mistake him for second-in-command, doesn't matter how many people think Goggles is the leader, because these three Inklings know, and that's enough for now.

**Author's Note:**

> *claps hands* GLASSES-ES GANG NEEDS MORE LOVE


End file.
